I’ve been enjoying a new documentary series on Netflix called Wild Wild Country, which tells the many-faceted tale of the short-lived Oregon city of Rajneeshpuram, a former 100-square mile ranch repurposed into a small, revolution-focused city in devotion to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.
Rajneesh was born on the 11th of December, 1931, at 5:13 PM in Bhopal, India.
Noteworthy in the natal chart of Rajneesh:
- an abundance of out-of-bounds Capricorn planets: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars are all out of bounds here, marking Rajneesh as a wonderful subject for a post, and of course an interest to me! These planets are gathered between his Sagittarius Sun and Capricorn Saturn and distributed in the 7th and 8th houses.
- an angular Sun, within five degrees of the DC
- Uranus conjunct Lilith at 14/15 Aries in the 11th house (of course, Mercury has just stationed retrograde at 16 Aries and I just so happen to be researching the bones off this fella.), square his Moon/Venus conjunction
- Neptune at 7 Virgo in the 4th house, trine Mercury (6 Capricorn) and within 7 degrees of the IC. This is a very magnetic Neptune. I mean, look at this man’s eyes. Just beautiful. Transfixing.
- Vertex at 3 Scorpio–remember this for later.
At some point (and I should really get the Rajneesh book so I can know exactly when), the Bhagwan relocated to Pune, India, and from there created a large ashram that was shared with his followers. Here is Rajneeshes’s natal chart relocated to Pune:
There is not much change, as the move is not incredibly dramatic, but the ascendant shifts from 13 degrees Gemini to 7, within orb of the fixed star Aldebaran. This moves Aldebaran from the twelfth house into the first house as well. To borrow from astrologyking.com, Aldebaran “gives honor, intelligence, eloquence, steadfastness, integrity, popularity, courage, ferocity, a tendency to sedition, a responsible position, public honors and gain of power and wealth through others, but its benefits seldom prove lasting and there is also danger of violence and sickness.”
Relocating to put Aldebaran in a primary angular position was a very fortuitous move for the Bhagwan, as he carried most of these blessings (and curses) at the forefront of his being. It always amazes me how often people gravitate to the places that will help them do what they want/need to do. That holds true here. Or alternatively, the Bhagwan had a pretty good locational astrologer.
By 1977, according to a recent timeline published by the East Oregonian, the Rajneesh movement was peaking “at about 25,000, which included properties around the world.” In looking at the Bhagwan’s transits for this time, I discovered Neptune crossing the DC into his seventh house on December 13, 1976 (two days after his 45th birthday), conjunct the Sun and Mars–certainly a powerful movement. To my eye, this effectively symbolizes the long labor of Neptune’s transit through his sixth house finally paying off, as Neptune crosses the horizon to begin a star-power happy hour that would last most of the remainder of his life. At least until things got too ugly and his followers started poisoning non-Rajneeshee people by the hundred with salmonella (right on time with Uranus opposing his ascendant and this whole adventure spiraling way out of his control, but I digress).
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh would have one more major relocation: the move to the sacred city built specifically for him to dwell in and rule. The city of Rajneeshpuram was supposed to be the Bhagwan’s revolutionary vision for human civilization manifested.
Here is the Bhagwan’s relocated chart for Rajneeshpuram, Oregon:
Changes noteworthy to the Out of Bounds Eye:
- the Sagittarius/Capricorn cluster of inner planets has moved from the 7th/8th houses to the 2nd/3rd houses of the chart. Formerly, Rajneesh’s Pune ashram was a shared resource, part of a greater municipality. Here, with Mars and Sun in the 2nd house (as well as transiting Neptune at the time), everything around him falls under his rule and ownership.
- the Bhagwan’s Neptune and Jupiter are positioned in the 10th house, no longer bookending the IC. His charisma and expansiveness isn’t hidden away in an ashram, but extremely public. His fame peaks, reaching worldwide levels, far beyond his followers. On the other side of the coin, though, his persona loses depth; he is reduced to his public image. He rarely has any interactions with the Rajneeshees who built this city. They are limited to witnessing the Bhagwan only through the protective glass of his Rolls Royces.
This Gemini Rising is not indecisive about cars. - Rajneesh’s Lilith-Uranus conjunction is now placed in the 6th house. At the same time, the Rajneeshee mandate of sexual-spiritual freedom begins to also emphasize sexual health. According to an article in the Seattle Times, at this point, “The Bhagwan liked everyone to have sex but was obsessed with preventing diseases, Ostrom said, hence the “sex kits” — “fist-sized plastic hearts” that were filled with lubricant, rubber gloves and condoms.”
- Remember the Vertex of the Bhagwan’s natal chart? It was 3 Scorpio, which is the relocated ascendant degree here. Was this all fated? Vertex says yes.
- And so does the Vertex on this relocated chart. It is calculated to lie at 9’43” Gemini, just four minutes from fixed star Aldebaran (9’47”). This puts the Vertex/Anti-Vertex axis in almost exact conjunction with the Aldebaran/Antares axis. What does Astrology King say about Antares (9’46” Sagittarius)? “It causes malevolence, destructiveness, liberality, broad-mindedness, evil presages and danger of fatality and makes its natives rash, ravenous, headstrong and destructive to themselves by their own obstinacy.”
Indeed, it would seem that the Aldebaran/Antares axis overtook the Rajneeshee narrative as Uranus opposed Rajneesh’s natal ascendant. The Bhagwan’s right hand, Ma Anand Sheela, began thrashing violently against the fearful actions of local Christian Oregonians. She plotted the assassination of the attorney general and, as mentioned above, conducted a massive bioterror attack throughout the county in an attempt to win an election.
I can only feel immensely grateful that the story of this Sagittarian guru and his followers has come across my path at a time when I can engage with it. I would totally e-mail him, but this iteration of his soul transitioned out of his earthly body back in Pune in 1990. Nonetheless, his chart is still receiving transits, as the March 16, 2018, release of this series found every astrological point except Jupiter and the North Node transiting above the horizon of his natal chart (and even above the horizon, Pallas is the sole occupant of his twelfth house). This release was on the eve of the recent Pisces new moon conjunct Chiron, which took place in his natal tenth house, where Neptune has been transiting for some years now (his MC is 0 Pisces).
I hope you have enjoyed this window into Out of Bounds astrocartography. Let me know if there are spots you notice in these charts that escaped my eyes!
Peace, Planets, and Plants,
-Phil